DCF Show Podcast: Nancy Novak on Data Center Innovation

March 31, 2021
On the DCF Show, our guest is Nancy Novak, the Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Datacenters. We discuss how innovation helps deliver faster and larger data center deployments, Nancy also shares her take on diversity in the data center industry,

Innovation is central to the digital transformation driving data center growth. But how do you build it into a data center development process? This week our guest is Nancy Novak, the Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Datacenters. We discuss how innovation is critical to faster and larger capacity deployments, and helped Compass deliver new projects during the pandemic. Nancy also shares her take on diversity in the data center industry – where there’s progress, and how to meet the staffing challenges to come.

DCF Show 16: Nancy Novak on Data Center Innovation

Listen to today’s show:

Here’s a timeline of topics Nancy and I discuss on the podcast:

  • 3:45 – The critical importance of sustainability in data center development.
  • 8:35 – How COVID-19 altered the data center market.
  • 10:00 – Why hyperscale operators are leasing more data center space, and why this trend may continue.
  • 11:30 – How data growth drives innovation.
  • 14:45 – Why diversity matters, and how (and whether) the data center industry is making progress.
  • 18:30 – Construction tech, and how exoskeletons can support diversity.
  • 22:20 – The “Cool Factor” and how it can help build the data center workforce of the future.

Here are some resources that tie into our discussion:

Be sure to check our our free Annual Forecast, outlining the DCF take on the most important trends to watch this year:

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About the Author

Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

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